The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1887-04-29
What Charles Francis Adams
Knows About the q. P.
THE ROAD AND IT'S BRANCHES.
The Investigation Goes On-The- Ups
and Downs of Rail roading-
Other News Pars
The Pacific Roads, investigation.

management Oh all ROADS tnaC nave re-
celyed aid from government in bonds,
was resumed, To-Day, by the committee
appointed by the President. Charles
Francis Adams occupied the witness
chair, and said he had been president
of th5 Union Pacific three years, and
knew a great deal of the road and it's
management and workings during his
presidency, but knew almost nothing
about it prior to that time. 1t was not
his business to look into the history of
the road, but to post himself on the
consolidated road. He had heard vague
stories that Directors Gould, Dillon and
Anles had so conducted affairs that
they were in debt TO the company.
Adams had, investigated these charges.
but he was not permitted to state his
conclusion. Adams looked into the
Nevada p Omaha Valley, and all of
the branches of the Union Pacific.
1t was general examination.
Each of them has separate
organization. The Union Pacific
Consolidated is composed of the Kan
sas Pacific, Denver Pacific and the old
Union Pacific. Adams thought the
charter of the Union Pacific Console
dated very narrow. He did not sup
pose the road proper had power to
build mile of branch track under that
charter. He is supposed to be presi-
dent of all the branches. The accounts
of the branches are kept in Omaha and
in Boston. For a transcript of the
books the Commissioner would have to
see Comptroller Mink. He relied i'm
plicitly on Mink. Adams exam
ined the affairs of the Den
yer & South Pacific. 1t was
built by Governor Evans, of California,
in 1888 and he sold it, $50 miles, to the
Union Pacific. Governor Evans has
had no connection with the Union
Pacific; did not know whether the con
struction books had been transferred to
the Union Pacific; Adams had heard
who made the bargains which trans
ferred Governor Evans road to the
Union Pacific. but didn't know who it
was. There was strong competition for
possession of the road, and Gould, of
ceeded in closing the purchase. 1t was
inflated ia Colorado at this time and
the stock in the road was turned over
at an extravaganza price, as it turned
out soon after, Colorado practically
collapsing. Evans road was built to
satisfy famous mining boom and car
ried men and tools to spots where holes
had been dug in the ground and called
mines. when the boom collapsed. as
every one knows it did," said Adams,
1.-THE road collapsed. 1t has lost money
every year since. ought to say in JUS
tice to the men who purchased it. that
before the bargain had been completed,
they were offered by General Palmer
$50, 900 for their bargain. state this
on the word of Mr.. Ames. The net loss
in operating the road last year was
$50, 900. The ups and downs in Colorado
are such that do not think the future
of this branch is hopeless if they strike
q good mine or a new mining country.
There is no chance of agricultural adj
vancement in that region" Adams
said whatever price was paid for the
road was charged to the Investment ac-
count, $33 OO0,UO0. .
The Nevada Central branch was
taken up. This road is ninety miles
long, and vas built on the expectation
of the development of Nevada. 1t
was acquired by the Union Pacific in
1881 or 1882, and about the first thing
Adams did as president was to throw
this branch overheard, as he could see
no future for it. Phelps, Stokes & Co..
of this city, furnished the capital to
build that road, and when it was bought
by the Union Pacific its cost price was
charged to expense account. l was at
q loss to know why he had bought
the road, and l made inquiries into it
of S. II. II. Clark, general manager
of the Missouri Pacific Railroad for
the Union Pacific. When 1 closed
it up 1t was in dept to the Union Pacific
$65 600 1t never paid more than e1-
penses." Adams had carefully iovesti-
gated the matter, and could not find
that any of the money of the Nevada
Central had gone to any one connected
with the Union Pacific. Gould had
grand scheme + developinl the active
railway system west OF Omaha, st. Joe
and Kansas City, by which deliveries
to Chicago and st. Louis. A part of
this scheme was the purchase of the
Kansas Central, which ran along the
northern part of Kansas. A part OF it,
the central branch, was subsidized. but
there were many branches feeding
it which were not subsidized. His
scheme contemplated the tapping CT
Texas and New Mexico and the whole
west. Afterwards Gould got interested
in other matters and disposed of this
scheme. The central branch IS leased
to the Missouri Pacific, the inducement
fo the Missouri Pacific being the con-
nection of that traffic. The road is very
profitable, as it is in al agricultural
country. The parties interested said
70 ms thew were in no wise interested in
the Union Pacific road
Adams said the stCeks OF the Central
Pacific, Union Pacific and Kansas Pa
cific we're consolidated, and taken up
by the bonds of the Consolidated Union
Pacific Railway Company in 1880. and
under the provisional charter, later on,
$40 600 600 dollars was issued. There
were never any other issues. The road
had always paid cash for everything,
and there had never been con-
struction company in the company.
Everything had been done honestly.
Mr.. Adams also found the Council BUNS
street railway, about a mile long,
among the properties which the ROAD
become possessed of in the former
regime. II think this road bought